06 May Printed Bag FAQs: What you need to know about delivery and design at TPBS

If you’re unfamiliar around these parts, new to investing in printed bags or just want to find out a little bit more about our products before getting in touch – good news! You’re in the right place.

We’ve decided to put together an FAQ post on all the questions we get asked regularly about our printed bags and packaging, so you can feel more clued up about our product range before enquiring.

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Ordering & Delivery

Q: What is the process for ordering printed bags?

A: We’ve worked hard to make the ordering process here at TPBS as simple and straightforward as possible for our customers. We wrote a blog outlining the full process which you can read by clicking here.

Q: How quickly can my printed bags be delivered?

A: There isn’t one answer for this, as each of our products require a different amount of time between receipt of artwork and delivery to your door, with some taking longer than others.

A: They sure can! If you’re undecided on what kind of printed bag to go for, or even if you just want to get a better idea of the quality of our bags by seeing them in person, just let us know and we can send you a free sample pack of some of our previously manufactured bags. We get them sent out as soon as possible for you – you could even receive them the next day! From there, you can be more informed in deciding what you want to go for.

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Payment

Q: When do I have to pay for my bags?

A: We work on a pro forma payment process, which means that we require you to pay for your bags before they’re dispatched. This doesn’t mean you have pay up as soon as you place an order – just that we can’t get your bags actually on their way to you once they’re printed until they’re paid for. The timescale for this will depend on the products you’ve ordered. We do this to ensure protection for ourselves whilst giving customers as much time to pay as possible.

Q: Is it possible for us to set up a credit account for payment?

A: We do offer credit accounts for some customers, but this is only available to repeat customers and not on your first order with us. You need to contact our accounts department at accounts@theprintedbagshop.co.uk to apply for a credit account. We review each application from there.

Artwork

Q: What kind of artwork do I need to send over?

A: If you know what design you want on your printed bags, all you need to send us is your artwork in either a vectored or outlined PDF file, an Adobe Illustrator file, or an EPS file. We also need the Pantone references for the colours you want to use, but if you don’t know what they are, don’t worry – we’ll match them as close as we can.

Q: What if I don’t have artwork, or can’t provide it in the right format?

A: Not a design expert? Don’t worry! We provide a full artwork service to help you getting your printed products looking just right. Send us what you have, or what you want it to look like, and we can either start from scratch or get your artwork redrawn for you in the right format, for a small extra charge.

Q: What does ‘spot colour’ mean?

A: Spot colours, or solid colours, are those created without screens or dots, such as Pantone colours. Using these for carrier bags is the best option because it gives the cleanest print.

Products

Q: Why is the minimum order quantity higher on black mailing bags?

A: We’re proud to offer a minimum order of just 500 bags on our printed mailing bags, but this increases to 3000 if you’re looking for your bags to be any other colour than white. Having black mailing bags with a white logo is popular with our customers, but sometimes people don’t realise the minimum goes up to 3000 for this. This is because, to achieve a completely black bag (or any other colour), the bag has to be flooded with colour and the white logo is left as the white of the bag. This is then considered 100% ink and means we have to increase our minimums to make it viable to print them.

Q: What are overprinted bags? Are they a better option for me?

A: Overprinted bags, when talking about laminated bags, refers to the artwork being printed on top of the laminate, rather than directly on to the bag and sealed by the lamination, which is how we do it as standard. This is considered a cheaper option than luxury laminated bags, and it can save money, but it can mean compromising on quality. Because the artwork is printed on top of the laminate, it’s more likely to become damaged and peel away, which does not look good to customers, and also you’re limited by the area of the bag you can print on.

We aim to be the most competitive suppliers on the market when it comes to laminated bags, and to match any like for like quote – what we tend to find is when someone believes they’ve found a cheaper quote elsewhere for laminated bags, it’s actually for overprinted ones, which can mean a lower price but lower quality to match.

So, be careful this when shopping around. We provide only the very best bespoke bags – but can also give you overprinted ones if you feel that’s best for you. We can also supply overprinted kraft bags too.

Q: What kinds of extra customisation options are available on your bags?

A: The ways you can customise your printed bags differ from product to product. We offer at least 2 different colour options on each of our products, with ones like laminated bags, tissue paper and punched handle bags giving a much wider range of colours to choose from.

The best product you can choose if you are looking for more customisation options is our luxury laminated paper bags. As well as being available in full CMYK printing (allowing you to print a photographic image), you can also have the interior of the bag printed, gloss or matt lamination to the exterior, the choice of rope, ribbon or a punched handle, metal eyelets for an extra touch of luxury, or embossing and hot foil blocking to really give your customers something special.

A: Well, before we answer, remember – there are lots of exceptions to the 5p carrier bag charge. These apply to businesses with fewer than 250 full time employees, promotional bags being given out at events… you can find out more about this on our Bag Tax page here.

Generally, the bag charge will apply to plastic carrier bags that are under a certain thickness. This can include our vest carrier bags, punched handle and patch handle bags.

A: We wrote a blog all about the differences between transfer printing, spot colour printing and screen printing and how they can be used on bespoke fabric bags in this blog here.

There you have it! Some FAQs to help you get in the know.

If you have a question about our products or delivery process that wasn’t answered here, just drop us a line! Get in touch by calling 0191 268 7555, or emailing sales@theprintedbagshop.co.uk. Our team are more than happy to help, and answer any other queries you have.